


The Fairy Theory

by criacuervos, Maragraphs



Category: Original Work, The Fairy Theory
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Daemon Feels, Dystopia, F/M, Gen, Post-Apocalypse, just your average rebel group vs the government, multidae au, the only thing this borrows from his dark materials is the daemons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 00:28:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29269509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/criacuervos/pseuds/criacuervos, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maragraphs/pseuds/Maragraphs
Summary: Αfter The Cataclysm, a decimating event that brought the world to its knees, rebuilding efforts have started. The Republic, a city recovering from years of anarchy and war, struggles for a semblance of normalcy, but instead is besieged by a government so set on returning to a pre-Cataclysm normal that it suffocates itself with corruption and control. Using a terrible accident from the past and the folktales it spun in time, the government has turned on people with multiple dæmons, claiming they wield more power than any human should. And so, what sort of threat could multidaes pose for the normalcy they’ve strived so hard to build?After all, only Fairies were supposed to have more than one dæmon.
Relationships: Original Female Character & Original Male Character, Original Female Character/Original Male Character, Pedro Duvaeu & Belén Luna, Pedro Duvaeu/Rin Winters
Kudos: 2





	1. Prelude: Introduction

~~~ Anatoli ~~~

Her name means dawn in Greek, which is why Pedro always thinks of her as the sun. A sun that can warm you on a chilly morning, but also a sun that can hurt and make you dizzy on a hot summer's day. Anatoli burned brighter than the sun though, and at the same time she was darker than the coldest night. She was always so binary, simultaneously serene and formidable, calm and agitated, nothing could hold her down. It sometimes scared Pedro how much power she possessed. Sometimes he was scared he didn't deserve her.

They were very close until the incident and if she couldn't feel his fear she would have despised him. He was so scared, and Anatoli shared his fears, she was shaking to her core with fright, even though she never let it show. For Pedro's sake. She settled when he was 13 years old, on a regular day at boarding school. She just woke up and she was settled in her American Mastiff form.

When they started boarding school, they were forced apart. She was considered, by the teachers, miasma like something that would besmerch Perdo. And he believed them. They were the teachers, they knew more stuff than him, they knew the truth. So he had no other choice. It was either to believe them or be beaten and thrown out like her. Anatoli was on the brink of hating him for that. Maybe there was a part of her that did, maybe it was the same part of himself that hated him for his own cowardess.

And then Dimas came to them and everything changed.

~~~ Dimas ~~~

Dimas was a storm wrapped in skin. She was evermoving, dancing with the wind and more stubborn than a mule. Pedro thinks she has not settled yet out of pure determination and spite. She never found out why she came into Pedro's life, it all happened so quickly and abruptly, but she was happy and she wouldn't change anything. She loved him with all her might and even if he didn't show it, she knew he loved her as well.

Dimas and Anatoli butted heads as many times as there are fish in the sea. As their names suggest, they are like night and day, like dawn and dusk. Deep down though, they had both sworn an oath to protect their Sun, to protect Pedro.


	2. Running

She woke up surprised. She existed. Dimas was breathing and looking and standing and being hungry like any alive organism. She was in a rat form on a bed next to a human.  
Her human. She could feel her insides calling to him, urging her to be close to him. He was warm, asleep and looked tired. It was night she guessed from the closed curtains and darkness.  
She didn't know what to do! Should she wake him up? Should she wander around? Should she sleep next to him? Something rustled nearby and Dimas almost jumped.  
The was a big dog sleeping on the ground next to his bed and she felt the same connection to it than she felt with him. A multidae. Her human is a multidae! She yelped at the realisation!

***

"You have to stay hidden. If anyone finds out we'll be in big trouble. BIG TROUBLE." Pedro was only whispering but anxiety and fear were shaking his voice. Anatoli was pacing from the door to the window checking if anyone had followed them from the office. He knew that anyone in the agency with half an eye would be able to detect he was off, but if he didn't show up at all it would be even more suspicious. People looked at him weird, noticing the sweat over his brow and general nervous twitching. He pleaded with Dimas to stay under his lapel but she was suffocating, he could feel it in his own lungs. After the lapel she tried his breast pocket, which wasn't any better, she was being crushed again but they all endured until the end of his shift. He would go to his supervisor's office tomorrow and apologise, say he was sick. As if that would convince a government official, a pillar of TDF. Pedro had to hope, cause it was this or...

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK  
At times like this you realise the instincts are not only fight or flight. There is a third one. Stillness. When you are so terrified, so mortified you can not move or react or blink or breathe. You lock in place and brace for the worst frozen.

Anatoli jumped towards the door, Pedro stilled and Dimas flew behind his laundry.

Anatoli sniffed under the door. Dog daemon. Cheap perfume. Rubber boots. Gunpowder. Her nose told her unmistakably that there was a TDF agent behind their door. She recognised him on the second sniff. James Deer, notorious son of a bitch, ambitious in the agency, ruthless against multidae. Pedro despised him with all his might. But in more important news, the fact that he was here could mean only one thing. They had been caught.

He was brought back by Anatoli's nose on his hand. They had no time, they had to go away. Now. He grabbed his backpack and stuffed it with his laundry, he didn't care what he got, he just shovelled clothes as quickly as he could. Anatoli ran to the door again and kept watch, as Pedro hastily gestured his head to Dimas. She flew in her moth form in his hair. It was lighter and more airy than a pocket or a lapel and they should have thought of it sooner.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK  
"Pedro, open up it's James!"

The last thing he had to get was his gun. No, not his government issued agency gun, Pedro had to get his dad's gun. He climbed his wardrobe and got the box, opened it, grabbed bullets and shoved the heavy glock in the backpack.

"Pedro if you don't open up I'm gonna bust the door! You know I can!"

Anatoli was already by the backdoor which lead to an alley, the moonless night would cover them if only they got out of the house. Agency training is thorough but they never teach you to always sleep in a room with two exits and on the ground floor for easy street access. Abusive fathers and abusive institutions teach you that.

As he was rushing towards Pera Str he heard his door being crushed and hurried up even more. Pera Str, and now over to Lutton Str and then he'll completely lose him after Abbey square. The darkness of night would help and he also knew these roads well, Pedro knew to only take alleys and stay in the shadows.

Unfortunately, James had gotten the same training and it was on Lutton Str Pedro felt like something crushing him and fell to the ground. He looked to Anatoli and saw her struggling against James's daemon, an Irish wolfhound form named Grumper. James was a little further back but was coming closer with his handgun armed and aiming at Pedro. He could feel teeth around his neck and claws digging into his shoulders. They had to get out, before it was too late, before things got to the point of no return.

"If you try to run, it is seen as disrespect to authority and I can legally shoot you man. Come on don't do this! We work together!" James's slimy voice kept getting closer and Grumper was not bugding, Anatoli was scratching and bitting and kicking but he was stronger and meaner. Pedro got up on his elbows and looked around for help. He didn't want to shoot, it would be heard for a long way and it would attract attention. At last he saw it and started crawling. He could use James's arrogance against him.

"Come on man, just surrender! You know we can fix this! There is this new separation treatment. We can save you of this pest." That hypocrite! As Pedro tried to stand up straight bit by bit, he looked at his rival, his ginger hair blushed and slicked back like the pompous bastard he was, his sly grin like he had already won and his green eyes full of malice. How dare he speak about Dimas like that!

"That's what we say to people before we kill them. We can fix this we say and then send them off to become lab rats." At that he jumped at James with the pipe he had picked up from the ground.

James of course was not prepared for a direct attack, he shot his gun but Pedro zigzaged towards him and hit his head with the pipe as hard as he could.

The body hit the floor lifeless. Pedro couldn't tell in the darkness if that was blood or mud. He turned around and saw Grumper lying on the pavement. Pedro felt so relieved he hadn't become a killer tonight, he almost felt tempted to thank God.

Anatoli came by his side and he felt Dimas letting go of his hair and landing on Anatoli in her mouse form, hugging her and licking the places around her neck she knew were bitten. He went down on his knees and hugged both of them for a moment, he knew the sun would come up soon and they had to go but just for a moment he wanted some peace. It was them three against the world now.

They were out of the city before dawn.


	3. Sleeping

Last night he slept in an abandoned car. It was cold and it smelled like rot, but it was a closed space that provided some kind of shelter in the highway. He slept in the backseat with his hand draped on Anatoli and with Dimas curled up in her mouse form under his shirt to keep as warm as she can. It wasn't ideal, but it would have to do, until they reached the Fairy camp.

He knew, from agency intel, that the Fairy camp was in the north near the mountain foot. How was he supposed to find it? He was cold, hungry and alone. And even if he did find them, how was he supposed to ask these people for help? He hunted them. It was his job to prosecute them up until yesterday. If one recognised him, Pedro was done for, they are going to kill him on the spot. And they would be right. Pedro doesn't want to think back to how many multidae he has sent to concentration camps over his years in the agency. And he doesn't even want to consider how many he has killed indirectly with all the intel he has gathered.

"Hey, you know I am lying directly over your heart? I can tell from your heartbeat you are anxious." a tiny squick of a whisper pulled him out of his thoughts. Dimas was peeking her beedy black eyes looking right at him.

"What if one of them remembers me from a raid?" he whispered, "I've hurt so many of them..." he almost started sobbing. The tiredness of the day, the walking, the cold, the hard cushion of this backseat, the whole fucking situation was crushing him. "What if we are going all this way only to get killed the moment we reach the camp?"

Dimas could sense a panic attack coming their way and got out from under his shirt and with her small mouse hands touched Pedro's cheek. She shushed him gently and licked his tears as she said in the most calming voice she could master:

"Hey buddy, there is no anymore. You are multidae! You are part of this camp and you haven't even entered yet! You belong with them, with other multidae, and if they try to harm you, they are not doing good advertising with the whole United Rebellion schtick." She tried to use humor in the end to lift his spirits.

But she was right all the way through. Pedro belonged in that camp, from the moment he was chased out of his city. He was an outcast to monodae society and his only remaining chance of survival was with the Fairies. He started to calm down and picked Dimas in his hand to put her back under his shirt. She tried not to think about how this was the first time he actively and willingly touched her.

"Get some sleep young man we still have a long way tomorrow and I deserve my beauty sleep." she curled her tail around herself and lied to sleep, feeling Pedro's heartbeat slowing.

Anatoli was awake through this whole exchange only pretending to be asleep, lying still on the cold car floor with steady breaths. She was always very practical and didn't let emotion get in the way of work. This is how she was taught. Teachers at the Christian boarding school said so, and the agency code and training said so. There is no place in daemons for feeling. For too much feeling can lead to sin. So the moment Dimas came in the picture she didn't have any time for petty jealousy, because all she could think about was keeping Dimas hidden so they don't get themselves arrested. Anatoli knew that if she allowed herself she would get very jealous and envy of this small creature that gets to talk to Pedro and get all his attention. All her life teachers, priests, supervisors have made it very clear that daemons are not supposed to interfere with their human, because daemons corrupt. Over and over and over again in many excutiating hours of school and in way too many books. Of course she never had any intentions of corrupting Pedro, never, never in a million years. She thought that if she followed the rules that would keep him out of trouble, that would keep him safe. Guess that was a fucking lie!

Anatoli almost let a growl escape her, but was brought back to reality. She tried to take a few grounding breaths but she felt like she was onto something. All her life she was taught how to hunt and kill multidae, because according to supervisors, they are all filthy, degenerate scoundrels who only want to steal, sin and meddle in witchcraft. Pedro, who is now a multidae, is nothing like that, so that had to be a lie as well. Dimas wasn't malicious or harmful, she was just born a few days ago and tried to survive by communicating with her human, there is nothing wrong with that. So the blame shouldn't fall on this poor soul, the blame belongs on the hearts of the tyrants that try to keep daemons and humans in a distance to control them.

In a moment Anatoli had a revelation and she wagged her tail in excitement. From tomorrow she had no shackles keeping her from expressing her feelings, no muzzle to keep her silent. She could be free and show her love to her human in the way she wants.


	4. the Scout

The next morning Pedro got out of the car with his back and set up a simple wire trap until he found some water. Anatoli said yesterday she could hear some running water in the east while she was patrolling before they slept, but she couldn't see it in the dark. They walked a bit to that direction and found a creek with fresh ice cold water that Pedro thought was a blessing and a good omen. The true blessing was the little rabbit that was caught in the trap! They were gonna have a feast!

"Stop where you stand! Hands up!"

Pedro panicked, he stilled and threw his hands up. Dimas was on the ground between some weeds shaking in fear and Anatoli was growling at the man behind him. He was caught, he was caught, he was caught, this is it, the agency caught up with him, he's done, they are going to experiment on him until he dies, James Deer is standing behind him and is going to torture him.

Pedro was frozen, until he heard Dimas sigh. "They are not TDF."

She sounded like a burden was lifted from her shoulders and she got out of her hiding place. Pedro turned to look, more worried about her and was relieved to look at the person holding a gun in his direction. They were wearing civilian clothes, a heavy jacket that looked worn, muddy old boots and dirty jeans. If the way they held their gun was not indicative that they are a rebel, seeing a second daemon, a wild hog growling towards Anatoli was reassuring enough. Anatoli seemed to be the only one still openly hostile, growling. She had to be. She knows that it's a miracle they were found by the Fairies rather than TDF, but that person was still aiming a gun at Pedro.

Their other daemon was a cicada who was carefully sitting alongside the persons neck, ready to cover in the jackets lapel. They didn't seem to care that Pedro was multidae, as they didn't lower their gun, but said :

"Where did you come from?" their voice was firm. Pedro turned to look at them his hands still raised in a non threatening manner.

"I'm from the city man, I've been out here for a couple of days... I was actually looking for the Fairies camp." Pedro knew that if he gave information willingly he could be deemed trustworthy. He used all his interrogation training, he kept eye contact, he made his body language as non threatening as possible, kept a steady voice and tried to sound truthful.

"When did your second daemon emerge?" Now that Pedro took a few good looks at them, they seemed a lot more calm than he expected. Almost like they had done this before. They looked like they could be patrol, and Pedro guessed a patrol would encounter a lot of lost souls trying to find refuge with the Fairies.

"A couple of days ago. I tried to go to work while hiding her, but the same day she came -emerged as you put it- the TDF sniffed us out and chased us out of the city. She's only a few days old man, please!"

"Then tell her to stop growling at me!" the hog said, anger spilling between their tusks. Pedro had never heard a daemon adress another person before, but he didn't have the mind to think of that right now. Anatoli almost immediately stopped growling, but held the same stance. Ready to pounce. "I'm the original one, she is the second one." she said without motioning or even looking at Dimas.

The human seemed to be a little more sympathetic than their daemon. They lowered their riffle and said "If you are looking for the Fairy camp just follow me, I was almost done with my rounds before encountering your tracks... Don't worry I erased them." Then they turned around and started walking west, their hog daemon still kept an eye on them the whole way.

Pedro trusted the invitation and started following them. Dimas turned into a sparrow and flew a bit higher trying to see where this patrol person was leading them. Anatoli kept her tense posture so Pedro decided to be the diplomat. While still keeping a safe distance (he didn't want to spook the dude) he put on the best smile he could master and said:

"So, what's your name, man?" the moment the words left his mouth he know he sounded dumb and childish. Pedro hadn't seen another human in two days and he lost all social skills?

"You keep calling me man... Please don't. My name is Aster." They didn't seem to be interested in conversation, but Pedro couldn't stop himself.

"And how long have you been a Fairy-"

"Look until Belen has had an audience with you and decided you can join the ranks, I'm not allowed nor do I want to share much information, γκε-γκε?"

Pedro stopped dead in his tracks. "Belen?" No, no it couldn't be. He hadn't heard that name in years. The was no way. 

Pedro and Aster reached the camp after an hour. Pedro spent the whole hour thinking of the name Aster had dropped. Bellen. He hadn't heard that name in 14 years, his father forbade him from even mentioning the name. He sure spent a lot of time thinking about her though, after... There was absolutely no way. There was simply no way it was her. Could it be? Pedro tried to weigh in his mind if it was better to hope it was her and then find out its not actually her. Was hope worth the let down? Then he started thinking if it was actually her, would that make his situation better or worse? Would she welcome him or hate him after everything?

The camp was securely hidden in the foot between two mountains. The walk wasn't extremely difficult and Aster didn't take any turns or hidden paths. Pedro tried to memorise the route, while Dimas was thinking that if they hadn't met Aster they could have stambled upon the camp on their own, if they just continued on their own, they were headed this way after all and even though they didn't communicate, Anatoli was thinking the same thing. 45 mins in, all three City slickers realised they would have been dead before reaching the camp if they were on their own. Aster made an unnecessary effort to walk close to a tree and avoid the path and they did turn back to motion for Pedro to follow. Pedro of course followed, because he wanted to show his captor(?) how willing he was to play by Fairy rules. As he got closer and closer to the tree he kept his eyes to the part of the path they were avoiding. There was a trap, covered with leaves and Pedro gulped because he knew even with all his fancy agency training he would have fallen into that trap. There was no way to see it if you didn't know it was there. At that moment he realised something else, his stomach turned imagining the spikes under those leaves, but there was nothing to turn. Pedro was so hungry! They had caught that rabbit in the flimsy trap but he never got to eating when Aster showed up.

Then after a couple more trees Aster stopped dead in their tracks, put their fingers to their mouth and whistled a bird call. Pedro stayed silent and was rewarded, when he heard an almost identical call answer to Aster come from the treetops. The Fairies were organised, it made sense now that TDF couldn't so easily wipe them out. They had used absolutely every resource they had available. Traps in the ground, shooters in the treetops, and Pedro guessed many more safety measures he didn't have to encounter thanks to Aster. Dimas turned to look at Pedro as she landed on Anatoli's shoulders, thinking maybe they were more lucky to meet Aster than they realised.

The high wooden walls covered in foliage entered their point of view a few minutes later and a door opened as Aster approached. Pedro and Aster entered a dark chamber. Aster let down their riffle and Pedro looked around at the shelves of guns, riffles, bullets, vests, raincoats and other bits found in an armory. He was more and more impressed by the minute, and he felt more and more secure being behind these walls and trusting the Fairies to protect him from the agency. Aster then talked for the first time since they started walking.

"It is procedure that I cover your eyes until your audience with Bellen. We know the Reapers know the location of the camp and we've taken precautions, which is also why I didn't cover your eyes while we walked here. But they don't know what our grounds look like or how many people we have and we'd like to keep it that way. I hope you understand."

"Oh no, yeah, that sounds completely logical, and I'm actually glad you guys are so cautious! Means that if I'm able to join I'll be protected as well. So yeah sure great." he was babbling and he knew it, but he couldn't stop it or calm his nerves. He was so close to finding her.

"Please, if you have a daemon small enough to carry hold it on your person under your jacket or in a way they won't have line of sight. For a daemon that can not be carried I ask you cover their eyes as well." said Aster in a way that made it seem like they had learned this by heart and have said it so much it has become automatic to them, and they handed Pedro two bandanas. Pedro put one on Anatoli, took Dimas in his pocket in her mouse form and finally put a bandana over his own eyes.

He heard a door open and felt a hand on his left elbow gently pushing him forward. "I do hope you pass the audition." Aster said on his left, and Pedro didn't know what to answer so he didn't. With Aster leading him on his left and Anatoli on his right almost glued to his hip Pedro could feel his heart hammer in his ribcage. This is it.

He felt the soil change under his boots from ground to wood and deduced Aster guided him into a building. Hearing a door close behind him confirmed his deduction and after a few more steps Asters hand left his elbow and with the same gentleness pushed his shoulders down to make him sit. Pedro felt this was his queue to take of his bandana as he was sat down. As he opened his eyes it took him a couple of seconds to take in his surroundings. He was in a minimalistic room with a big rectangular desk in the middle and four chairs, two on each side of the table. On the chair next to him sat Aster, and on the other set of chairs sat a woman. The table was bear of any tablecloth and had a big bottle of water and a few glasses next to it. 

The woman on the other side of the table was definitely his sister. Pedro felt over the moon to have found her.


	5. Vantage Point

When Pedro joined the rebellion he thought his life was over. He was thrown out of his house, he was chased out of his job and he was hunted out of his city, his way of living. Pedro had lost everything and taking residence inside the rebellion camp was just means to surviving.

Until he met Rin.

Multidae rebels fought for the cause, monodae rebels fought for their loved ones and his sister, the only other person he knew in this camp, was their leader. Everyone seemed to be here for a reason, they had a purpose, and Pedro was among them trying to find a footing in this new shit show that was his life.

But Rin was different.

Rin walked around camp, or better described skipped around camp with a determination. She was just going for her daily chores but there was pride in her step. Rin was a survivor and she put the same thought and degilence both in infiltrating missions and everyday tasks like gathering fruit or doing laundry. She lived with her whole heart. She lived the life she wanted. She lived because she wanted to. Pedro had seen her around camp, and she looked peculiar to him from the very first glance. She radiated. Rin was glowing and it almost bothered him. How dare she be cheerful when his life was in shambles?

"Who's that?" he tried to sound nonchalant when he asked Belen.

"Oh that's Rin! She's one of the lucky ones."

Pedro didn't care to ask what that meant. Or so he tried to convince himself.

They met on his first mission. When he saw Rin in the debriefing he was taken aback. Pedro couldn't imagine this girl taking out government agents. He knew the Fairies had enough people to pull of this kind of infiltration, why did they allow young, innocent looking girls to come. Aster would be more adequate than this girl. She looked barely in her twenties. So Pedro decided to stick close to her, protect her in case Reapers showed up. Dimas seemed intrigued by Kashmir and she flew over him in her moth form the whole way to her vantage point, on a treetrunk. Of course Kashmir noticed but he paid her no mind. He knew newcomers need some time to adjust.

"Hi! I'm Rin!"

This? This is how she decides to introduce herself? While they are waiting for the truck? Laying on the cold, wet ground hiding under bushes?

"Hello."

"I noticed your daemon taking a liking to my Kashmir. She looks pretty. What's your name?"

Is she serious? Is she actually striking up conversation while they are in enemy territory?

"Uhm, Pedro, this is Dimas, that's Anatoli back there." he said quietly. They were on a mission for God's sake.

"Oh, just the two then! Me too. For now!" her smile was so pure Pedro was dumbfounded. He didn't know if she was stupid or just an optimistic. Or both.

"I think we should focus on the mission." This was a disaster! His first mission and he's paired with the lunatic. Where they testing him? This was a simple enough mission, just a hit to a government truck that would be transferring food and medicine to the capital. In a simple hit and run, there was not much he could fuck up, so maybe they were testing him. Pedro just realised that if the rebels weren't so cautious with everyone, as they are with him, they would have been caught ages ago. Yes, Belen made sure he got in the camp, but he had to prove himself on the missions. So this girl is either a good actress or too stupid to realise the situation they were in.

"Yes, yes the mission, right!" Rin looked like she was caught off guard, but before he could look at her face more intently the truck showed up down the road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so the romance begins!


	6. Chapter 6

The mission was a success. The driver didn't even put up a fuss, because a wise man knows his life is worth more than a bunch of crates for posh high ranking government officials.

Pedro was on edge the entire time. One look at Rin and he realised he's been on edge his entire life. He was holding his gun in alert position with his whole body wound up ready to spring, his eyes scanning the field for threats, his nerves taught to an extreme thanks to official agent training. He was trained to never relax, never quiver because there are enemies everywhere ready to strike, ready to kill. Even Anatoli covered his blindspot, just like old times. But Rin was in a leisure state, holding her dagger at the general direction of the driver without a proper handle, her bow tucked too securely behind her back, and last but not least she was sitting. To Pedro's trained eyes she looked like she was asking for an attack.

Rin walked back into camp dancing, with Paulina trying to keep up, jumping around her feet both of them chirping a happy tune. Kashmir stayed a little behind their cheering chant. He approached Pedro who was not far behind.

"I don't know why you were looking at her like that, but you need to stop it." His voice was deep but smooth, like hot black coffee.

"Like what?" Dimas jumped. She knew Kashmir talked to Pedro but she could feel Pedro's discomfort talking to another daemon.

"Like you pity her." Kashmir kept talking to Pedro, "we don't need no city boy's pity, who thinks he knows everything and believes the universe revolves around his ass."

"Kashmir!!!" Paulina screamed and ran to his side with Rin on her toe. She climbed on his back and bit his left ear.

"What did he tell you? I'm sorry for his rudeness he doesn't like outsiders very much. Not that you are an outsider, you are one of us now, it's just that he has trust issues and doesn't open up easy and he runs his mouth-" Rin was rambling at speeds unknown to mankind.

"Hey, relax. You... Uhm, you could make it up to me, walk me to the dinning Hall cause I still get lost getting there." Pedro scratched the back of his neck and felt Anatoli's eyeroll.

"Sure! Yes! It's not that hard! Come on I'll walk you there!" and her concern was gone in an instant, and that's all Pedro could ask for. Seeing the hope in Rins eyes felt like fresh breeze to him. Of course he didn't hate it and he didn't despise her. He was just being childlishly jealous because he was miserable and stuck in a cicle of self hate after years of societal norms being shoved down his throat, while she was blissfully living a free life.

The first few steps to the dining hall were awkward. Pedro didn't know how to approach her, because she herself was friendly and giddy, but her daemon was hostile. Was she scared of him? That could be a valid reason why Kashmir hated him, it would also explain why Paulina avoided looking at him. Even Rin was stiffer, she walked with her hands behind her back, and for the first time in a while, she was silent. Her dark eyes that shined brighter than the sun had dimmed looking down at her worn boot kicking mud around.

Now that is a crime. Pedro took it upon himself to change the heavy atmosphere, because Rin should never feel like she has to be silent.

"Erm... You mentioned earlier *for now* what did you mean by that?" again he scratched behind his neck. If he had an agent across from him they would know he is nervous, it's an obvious tell. Thankfully it was Rin walking next to him.

"Sorry, what?" she furrowed her brows as she was pulled out of her thoughts. She looked like she was embarrassed. Why in God's name should she feel embarrassed?

"While we were under the bushes, back at the vantage point, you said just the two for now referring to my daemons. What did you mean by that?". When the words came out he realised it was weird to remember something she said hours ago. It was even weirder to ask her an explanation.

"Well you are a multidae, because you have more than one daemons but there is no way to know with how many you'll end up with! My mom told me a story that when she first came here she met a rebel with twelve daemons!" Her eyes shined at the thought. "Your third dae may be just around the corner waiting for you!" and she jumped dramatically around the corner of the building to their right.

"Oh please for the love of goodness no! I couldn't handle more! Hahaha!" he genuinely laughed and Rin laughed with him. How could her laugh be more beautiful than her smile? She laughed with her whole body and it sounded like a seal squicking, but it was the most beautiful thing Pedro had ever seen in this camp.

After gathering a tear and tidying some strands of her hair behind her ear, Rin said: "Hah, I don't know about you but I'm hoping for at least three more." she held up three fingers to him.

Dimas was intrigued and wanted to hear as much as she could, so she left her moth form and flying, to sit on Pedro's shoulder in her mouse form. Rin looked like she was happy to be multidae, unlike the other rebels who looked like being multidae was only a matter of revenge against the government to them. Dimas pinched Pedro's cheek, and he knew what she wanted him to ask.

"May I ask why? Do you get paid by the dozen here?" he felt like this was a personal question, so he tried to cover it with some humor.

Kashmir intervined at that moment. He trotted between them and growled at Pedro. Anatoli was ready to defend but Pedro made a gesture towards her to calm her.

"OK touchy subject, completely understandable. Let's change subject! Belen said you are one of the lucky ones. Care to comment on that?" he did not want to get to Kashmirs bad side. He didn't want to upset Rin. Not at any cost. She was just too precious.

"Oh! Haha! I think she meant that because I was born here in the camp. I've never been to a city or the capital, all I've known my whole life is this." she gestured around.

Well that explains it. That explains her spirit, her joy, her unbridled optimism. She has never experienced the fear, the cold of living under TDF's watchful eye. Belen was right, Rin may be the luckiest person Pedro has ever met. That must be why she speaks to daemons freely and her daemons refer to other humans without being uncomfortable. Because they haven't gone through the school system that teaches shame about human-daemon relationships.

Before Pedro had time to think of something to say Rin chirped: "Here we are! Dining hall!" Unfortunately she was right. He scratched the back of his neck. He should work on that tell, he thought.

"Thanks... Uhm... I guess I'll see you around." he didn't want to let go of their conversation. He didn't want to let go of her radiance and warmth, but he was sure the girl must have other things to do than wasting time with a city boy.

"See you later alligator!" and just like that she danced away.

Pedro spend dinner thinking about Rin. He spend the whole day thinking about her. About her hair, her eyes, her smile, her childish joy and the unmeasurable light that radiated from her like the sun. As he lay awake in bed he thought that she made him laugh and that must be the first time he has truly been happy in a while. Maybe ever.

And at that moment he decided he would protect her against everything, against bullets or any physical harm, against the government, against his former colleagues, against sadness or any type of discomfort, against the world itself.


End file.
